Unaffected
by HelenL
Summary: A completely fluffy Gibbs/Abby fic, which was inspired by the song "Unaffected" by Hoobastank. This one is finished.


**A/N: **Okay, this was just a random cute fic that I thought would be fun to write. I don't really plan to continue it, unless I get some ideas or if everyone's just dying for more, which I doubt will happen. And Abbs, you know I love you, but your vote just doesn't count for this... Sorry!

**Disclaimer: **Don't own them... Blah, blah, blah... Why is this necessary? I mean, obviously if we owned the characters and such, we wouldn't be posting fics because it'd just end up happening on the show! So yeah...

**Summary: **This fanfiction is based on the song _Unaffected_ by Hoobastank on their CD The Reason. Abby and Gibbs come back to her house after another night out with his old Marine buddies. Will Gibbs get Abby drunk, just to get her to tell him what's wrong? Or will he just lay next to her as though he's unaffected too?

Unaffected 

"Abby? Are you okay?" asked Gibbs as he slipped his arm tenderly around her waist. "You're awfully quiet..."

"Yeah," she murmured, not wanting to ruin his evening. She snuggled closer to him and looked over the edge of her porch. He had just dropped her off at home after a night out with his ex-Marine buddies. Then he had been insistent upon staying with her on the grounds of her comment earlier. She had stupidly told him that if he was to drink anything tonight that it would have to be with _just_ her. She picked up her wine cooler and took a sip in spite of herself.

"Was that a 'yeah' as in 'yeah, I'm awfully quiet'? Or was that a 'yeah' as in 'yeah, I'm okay'?" he asked as he looked down at her. She looked up, but not at him. She was staring at the sky. He vaguely wondered what new insight to life she was gaining as she watched the stars flicker in and out of sight and the clouds roll over the moon.

She flicked her eyes back on him and thought a moment. "I think that might've been a bit of both," she answered as she turned her head back to the stars. He followed her gaze curiously, as they had both known he would. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Okay Abby, we're going to stop lying to ourselves... What's the matter?" he asked again.

"I- nothing," she answered quickly. Too quickly, he noticed. His eyes settled on her once again and she knew that she wasn't fooling him for an instant. But she didn't care. It didn't matter, or so she kept on telling herself. _It doesn't affect me!_ she screamed to herself.

"Dammit Abby, don't lie to me!" he growled furiously. How was he supposed to fix things if he didn't know what the hell was going on?

"Please don't yell at me," she whispered timidly as she drew closer to the railing of her deck and further from the comfort of his strong embrace. Gibbs found her timidity unnerving. Abby was bold and daring- she didn't often whisper, and when she did it wasn't a scared whisper, it was more of a... Well, it wasn't a fearful whisper.

"Now I know that something's hinky," he told her, purposely using her favourite word. "Please just tell me what suddenly made you go anxious like that," he prodded thoughtfully.

"Do you want to sit down?" she asked in an attempt to distract him. She tossed her empty wine cooler into the trash can.

"Sure Abby. Let's sit down. And then you can tell me what's wrong," he agreed as he settled into one of her more comfortable deck chairs.

He wasn't falling for it, and that frustrated her. Couldn't he just leave her alone and let her be? She went into her house and slammed the door behind her. She hadn't meant to slam it, but she was slightly annoyed with him. Okay, maybe a bit more than _slightly_.

Gibbs thought about following her into the house, in case she decided to lock him out there and force him to either leave or go to work in the jeans and t-shirt she had insisted on buying him. He saw the light in her kitchen go on and decided she was getting another wine cooler. He guessed that she had just finished her third or fourth one. He was still debating on whether or not he should go and get a second. Just as he was about to get up, she came back out- looking a lot less flustered- carrying two more wine coolers. She smiled at him and sat on his lap.

"Are you still mad at me?" he ventured hesitantly. He debated putting his arms back around her and then decided not to push his luck.

"No... I wasn't mad. I was just... annoyed, I guess," she handed him one of the wine coolers and flicked the top off of hers. He decided that pushing his luck might not be such a bad idea anymore and pulled her into his arms. She leaned against him with a sigh. "We really should do this more often Gibbs," she informed him lightly.

"Abbs, are you drunk?" he asked, suddenly realizing that she was a bit too mellow, considering that he had just yelled at her and told her not to lie to him.

"No!" she objected with a frown. He pulled away the wine cooler and she glared at him. "Give that back to me!" she cried reaching over him for it.

"I think that's enough for tonight sweetheart," he declared as he set it firmly out of her reach on the simple wood table sitting next to the patio chair.

"Gibbs! I'm not drunk... not yet," she informed him.

He listened intently. She didn't _sound_ drunk. He thought a minute then reminded himself that they didn't have work tomorrow. Duh, Gibbs! "Abby..." he warned.

"Pretty please?" she tried.

"Fine..." he relied resolutely, not wanting to start another argument. He handed her the bottle. So he had a soft spot... He had a thing for being different around the women he loved. Funnily enough, his ex-wives didn't really fall into that category. He never really loved them. The others never got snuggles and smoochies (as Abby liked to call them) while sitting on the couch. Come to think of it, they hadn't really been able to crawl into his arms like she could either. "On one condition..." he added suddenly as he took it back from her hand.

"Depends..." she replied shortly. She wanted the power of her wine cooler back. She liked the numbing affect it had on her and the freedom she had when she finally got the release.

"Will you tell me why you had a miserable time tonight?" he asked her sweetly.

"What makes you think I had a miserable time? I was with you!" she protested. It was true... to an extent. She had been with him, which had more or less made things all better. But there was still that tiny factor. She knew she shouldn't let it bother her, but she couldn't help it.

"Abbs, what are you so worried about?" he tried again.

"I don't want to ruin your evening... You've been enjoying yourself," she explained simply.

"Of course I enjoyed myself; I was with you!" he told her.

"What about your Marine buddies?" she wondered, feeling more than a little bitter. "Didn't they make it a nice night?"

"Well, to an extent, but I have my favourite person in the world sitting on my lap and snuggling with me..." he told her with a smile and a kiss on her cheek.

"Please can I have my drink? I'm thirsty!" she used in an attempt to get the subject off of her- or at least off of how she had felt earlier.

"Then have some water. I don't want you to be drunk... I'm not too sure what sort of a person I picture you as when you can't control your actions," he told her seriously.

"Why? Are you afraid you won't be able to handle me?" she asked defiantly.

"I'm not giving it back until you at least agree to tell me what's got you on edge like this," he replied as he set her drink back down on the table.

"I don't want to change the way you think of your Marine buddies..." she tried feebly. She knew that he was coming close to getting her to tell him what was going on. She didn't want to tell him. What if se was overanalyzing things again? She had to admit that she did that a lot...

"So you would rather change how I think of you?" he asked, even though he wasn't really sure what he meant. It just seemed to be a fitting response.

She scooted off of his lap and stood over by her porch railing. "Are you saying that you don't love me anymore?" she asked him hesitantly.

"Of course not!" he objected immediately. She heard him get up off the chair and come to stand with her again. He set her wine cooler next to her hand and pulled her to him. "Please tell me?" he tried one last time.

Abby turned and looked into his eyes. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her again. She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to tell him to kiss all of her problems away. But that was the reason she couldn't tell him. Kissing them away didn't solve anything. They just came back sooner or later, and then they were ten times worse.

She struggled out of the comfort of his arms and ran for the safety of her house. She opened the back door and ran through her living room without a second glance. She rushed into her bedroom and shut the door. She realized, after she had locked the door behind her and slid to the floor in front of it, that she had left the back door open. If Gibbs was mad enough, would he just go home and leave it open? She sort of wanted him to come after her, if only so that she knew he cared. But he wouldn't and, deep down inside, she knew that.

She heard loud footsteps thunder up the stairs, followed by angry pounding on her bedroom door. She was still leaning against it and she could feel each blow to the door as if it was being delivered to her personally. It brought back memories- horrible memories that she had thought were gone forever. She had thought that leaving home would make them go away, but it hadn't.

"Abby, open the door!" demanded Gibbs furiously. He was determined to get in there, even if it meant finding a toolbox and taking the door off of its hinges. "Abby, please let me in... I just want to talk to you!"

"Go away..." she whispered, more to the visions in her head than to Gibbs.

"Did you just tell me to go away? I can't just leave you like this; not when you're so upset!" he protested.

There was no response. He was about to go and find a screwdriver and break into her bedroom when he heard the soft _click_ of the lock. She opened the door cautiously and stepped to one side. Gibbs assumed that it was the closest thing to an invitation inside as he would get. He took one look at her rattled appearance and knew that he wanted to be there for her forever. He wanted to fix all of her problems and then kill the people who had caused them in the first place. If they were already dead, he'd take them from their graves and kill them again. He opened his arms for her and she looked up. She considered it for a moment and then crept forward cautiously. She rested her head wearily on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her. He led her over to her bed and helped her onto it. He settled down next to her for the night and waited. She didn't say a word.

"Please tell me what's going on Abby... I love you and I just want to help," he reminded her gently as his arm slid around her waist.

She let out a resigned sigh. What harm could it do? She would only tell him about tonight. He didn't need to know about anything else. _Just tonight... Nothing else_, she promised herself firmly.

_There never seems to be,_

_Because what I believe,_

_A moment I'm not trying_

_To show them who I am._

_Why can't they understand_

_The things that they're denying?_

_They're denying....._

"I just- I guess it seems like I'm always trying to prove myself to them..." she began hesitantly.

He wrapped his arm tighter around her and waited for her to continue. "You don't have to prove yourself to anyone Abbs... They're a bunch of hardened and twisted old fools who think that they're God's gift to the world," he told her, hoping that that was all that was bothering her. He hated to see her like this. And all because of a group of guys that he would gladly ditch, if that was what she wanted. "Abby, you mean so much more to me than any of them do..."

_So what should I do?_

_Just lay next to you_

_As though I'm unaffected?_

_And who should I be_

_When they're judging me_

_As though I'm unaffected?_

"Well then who am I supposed to be when they're watching my every move and judging my every glance at you? And if they give me cold stares when I'm watching you, what would they do if they saw me hug you? Or, God forbid, kiss you? Is the whole reason they're doing this to see if I'm unaffected?" she babbled.

He listened to every word, as always. He had no idea how much she wanted to be accepted. He had always assumed that she didn't give a damn what anyone else thought of her. He guessed that the way she dressed made it appear as though she really didn't care. He vowed to himself that he would make sure to tell her that he loved her every single day. Even if that meant calling her and leaving a message on her answering machine, he would do it. He would make sure that she never forgot it. "Abby, just be you... That's always been good enough for me, and it should certainly be good enough for you. I promise that it'll all be okay. They're jerks and I don't give a damn about what they think of you. Nothing can change how I feel about you. Not them, not the team. Nobody," he promised her.

_A chance they'd never give_

_To ever want to live_

_The life that I am made of_

_There's nothing left to prove_

_My heart's forever true_

_What is it they're afraid of?_

_Afraid of....._

She continued anyways. She had to get it all out now or she'd never tell him and it would eat her up inside. "You know, I think that they might think I'm some kind of a slut... And I guess that that would sort of give them a reason to not like me, but it's not who I am... And you wouldn't get your life tangled up with someone like that!"

"So then why do you feel like you have to prove yourself to them?" he asked reasonably. He nuzzled her hair reassuringly.

"I... I don't know," she admitted. "Because there really is nothing left for me to prove to them. I love you, and I always will. I'm not going anywhere..." she promised him. She paused and thought a moment, "What are they so afraid of anyways?"

"I don't know Abbs. Please don't let what they think of you bother you so much... I love you too and it's killing me to see you like this," he replied honestly.

_So what should I do?_

_Just lay next to you_

_As though I'm unaffected?_

_And who should I be_

_When they're judging me_

_As though I'm unaffected?_

She smiled. The conversation was going even better than she had hoped. "I can't help it... And what do I do in the meantime? Do I just lie next to you and pretend it doesn't matter?" she asked.

He was silent a moment. Abby thought she might have made him drift off to sleep and rolled over to face him. His eyes were open and he appeared to be thinking very hard about something. He suddenly became aware that she was watching him and smiled.

"Have you been listening to me at all?" she asked with a small sigh.

"Yes, I have actually!" he replied defiantly. She looked into his eyes and knew he was telling the truth. "I just want you in my arms. If that means just lying here and snuggling for the rest of our lives, I'm okay with that... Don't lie to yourself, but don't let it eat you up from the inside out," he advised reasonably. "Is that all that's bothering you? I want you to promise me that nothing is going to go unsaid, okay?"

She nodded and curled closer too him. He lightly kissed the top of her forehead and closed her eyes happily.

_Before they even say my face_

_The knew that I was not the same_

_And decided I was not the one for you_

_For you....._

"I don't know... It just seems like... They judged me before they even really knew me. I guess after that they took one look at me and saw that I wasn't the same... I'm different Gibbs. So it appears that they've decided I'm just not the one for you," she guessed after a moment of silence. Gibbs began doodling a pattern across her back with the tips of his fingers. It made her skin feel tingly, but she liked it.

"Abbs, who cares what _they_ decide? This is our decision to make, not theirs. It's our lives and our future..." he reminded her gently. "You want to show them up?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "What do you have up your never ending sleeve now?" she asked curiously.

"Let's prove them wrong Abbs. Let's show them that you do love me and that I love you. We'll stay together, get married, and maybe have some kids... What do you think?" he asked excitedly.

She thought a moment. "Gibbs, won't they just think that that's why we're doing it- to prove them wrong? I want to marry you someday, but not anytime soon. And I think I'm a little uncomfortable with the whole idea of just doing this to show them up..." she admitted.

"Oh, Abbs- I didn't mean it like that. I'll wait as long as you need me to. And, when the time comes, I won't be marrying you to prove anything to anyone. How does that sound?" he clarified. He allowed his hands to run through her hair comfortingly. "Keep talking..." he told her reassuringly

_So what should I do?_

_I'm not unaffected_

_And who should I be?_

_I'm not unaffected_

"I just feel so... out of place. And it bothers me. I shouldn't be so affected. So- Gibbs, I can't concentrate on what I'm trying to say," she informed him.

He pulled his hands guiltily out of her hair. "Sorry sweetie..." he apologized.

"No, I was enjoying it... But I wasn't getting anywhere either," she admitted.

He chuckled and settled his arm back around her waist. "Go on, I promise not to interrupt again," he prodded.

"But I like it when you interrupt me!" she protested.

"Abby..." he warned.

_So what should I do?_

_Just lay next to you_

_As though I'm unaffected?_

_And who should I be_

_When they're judging me_

_As though I'm unaffected?_

"Well, all I really had left to say was that I'm not unaffected," she told him. "Please... I need to know what I should do- other than lay next to you and pretend I'm unaffected," she added quickly. "And who should I be when they think that I'm unaffected anyways?"

"Abby, just be who you are and do what you do. I _know_ that you're affected. And I know that they're more wrong than hell about us. Don't change who you are because of them," he demanded.

She rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh. "It's just me, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically.

"What's just you Abbs?" he replied as he wrapped both arms around her and pulled her body to him.

"It's me that's the problem..." she explained and left it at that.

"Yes, it is," he admitted. "But I don't care, because you're _my_ problem... And I've got to tell you, if all problems are like you, I really need some more of them," he told her.

She pulled away. "I thought you only wanted me!" she protested.

He pulled her back to him. "That came out wrong Abbs, what I meant was that I want more of the one problem," he tried again. He thought about what he had said. "Okay, well, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do, but it's fun to listen to you dig yourself deeper and deeper into Tony-size holes," she informed him.

"Just what I was hoping for tonight..." he muttered.

"What?" she asked, immediately thinking she had done something wrong.

"A comparison to DiNozzo..." he finished.

She laughed and snuggled closer to him; as close as she could without being on top of him. "Will you stay with me tonight?" she asked.

_Unaffected..._

"As long as you promise you'll put your head to better use than worrying over a bunch of ex-Marines..."

"Gibbs!" she cried, shocked. "Did you just have a moment?"

"A what?" he wondered. He thought about what he had said. "Abby! Why are you thinking about that?"

"Because you let Tony spend way too much time in my lab," she told him seriously.

"But Tony's rarely ever in there unless I am," a confused Gibbs reminded her.

"Exactly. In the two or less minutes a week that he's there and you aren't, my mind corrupts more than you'll even know."

"Well then, I'll just have to fix that problem. Tony is no longer allowed in your lab unless Kate or I am there too," he decided.

"Oh, a lot of good that's going to do me. I think you're kind of missing the whole corrupt principle, because putting Kate and Tony in my lab is not going to improve the situation," she reminded him. "That'd be one way to really mess it up though..."

"Maybe now's a good time for sleep Abby..." Gibbs suggested, making a mental note to tell Kate and Tony to stay out of Abby's lab.

"Sleep is good..." she murmured as her head rested on his shoulder. "'Night Gibbs- I love you..."

"I love you too Abbs," he answered as his arms wrapped around her. They snuggled for a few moments and then slowly drifted off to sleep.

15


End file.
